This invention relates to ladder attachments, and more specifically to a ladder attachment having a plurality of auxiliary widened steps for enlarging the effective step area of the rungs of the ladder.
Persons who spend extended periods of time on conventional ladders are familiar with the foot discomfort and fatigue caused by the narrow rungs of the ladder and the consequent relatively small area of contact between the person's feet and the rung of the ladder on which he is standing. In order to alleviate such discomfort, in the past various configurations and embodiments of attachments for ladders have been devised which provide one or more widened platforms or steps on which a person can stand to more evenly distribute the vertical force supporting the person over a larger area of the person's foot, and thereby decrease the concentration of pressure and resulting discomfort on the person's foot.
The following patents are typical of such ladder attachments which provide one enlarged step for the ladder: U.S. Pat. No. 1,288,182 issued to Pool; U.S. Pat. No. 1,462,086 issued to Echlin; U.S. Pat. No. 1,920,552 issued to Dollerhide; U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,727 issued to Picone; U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,559 issued to Miller; U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,338 issued to Chapman; U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,523 issued to Berkley; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,045 issued to Geisel. Several of the above-listed prior art patents include various adjustment means, including the Pool and Echlin patents which disclose means for adjusting the steps vertically in relation to the hanger means of the respective disclosures in those patents. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,439, issued to J. Reddy, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,468, issued to L. Taylor, both disclose ladder attachments having a plurality of widened step portions.
Although prior art devices are beneficial and successful to some extent in alleviating the foot strain problem, there has still remained a need for an improved ladder attachment device which provides more than one widened step, yet which is versatile, easy to attach and use, and, perhaps most important, stable and safe during use. For example, some of the attributes which such an attachment should possess include more than one step, a relatively rigid structure when attached to the ladder, no portion of the step protruding outwardly or forwardly beyond the plane of the ladder which could obstruct movement of a person's foot at it passes from one step to the other, or when his foot passes from a rung of the ladder to one or more additional steps, and it must be simple and convenient to attach to and detach from the ladder.